Another life that Bembo highlights and mentions repeatedly through the period of the French invasion of Italy is that of Bernardo Contarini. In the spring of 1495 when the Venetian Senate decreed to make Francesco Gonzaga captain general, they also put this Contarini in charge of the stradiots [ii, 40]. These were special soldiers imported from Greece and Albania, hired mercenaries, and now with a local captain. Under orders from Gonzaga they were moved with his larger army west across the Po and north Italy, as the French had moved north from Pisa. Contarini is mentioned heroically throughout this period, again and again, in Bembo's history of Venice, as an example of bravery and loyalty.
Before the battle of Fornovo, Contarini was sent with 600 stradiots to be near the forces of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, then outside Novara. Here, the forces of Milan and the stradiots under Contarini continually repulsed the French forces sallying out from the walls of the town. After Fornovo in July, and as more allied forces hostile to the French came to Novara, those French soldiers and cavalry still there retreated behind the city walls. All summer the combined allied forces assembled outside, brought a state of siege to the Duke of Orleans, the French king's brother and those (many thousands) that stayed with him [ii, 61].
As the siege wore on numerous parties tried to escape and messengers and other attendants tried to reach the French assemblage encamped near Asti. Time and again the forces of Contarini would intervene and cut them down.
Negotiations with the Duke of Milan at this time were especially fractious and suspect. Many had accepted the idea that the Duke was playing a double-game with both his allies (Venice and the pope) and the French. And this after the peace treaty was drawn up. Discussions came to such a head that when Contarini spoke to the proveditors in the field, he argued for a plan to assassinate the Duke. He said that when the Duke came for negotiations, that he would draw the daggers himself.
In one of those rare instances where Bembo gives quotes from his subject to further his narrative, he lets Contarini speak. It shows him as a man of action with an eye to consequences of his actions.
"Today, as usual, you will be holding discussions with Ludovico [the Duke] about matters of common concern. His captains will be with him, and you will have your captain-general and officers with you. The doors will be shut, and debate will ensue. I shall make as if to address him, but will then run him through with this dagger and kill him. That done, I know for sure that none of his captains will draw his sword -- which of them is not more timid than any woman? Which of them, one or two excepted, does not regard him with the utmost loathing? And those one or two will have gone to Charles [the French King] as peace envoys and will not be present. Ludovico's army will also surrender their standards to you once he is dead, if they realize that you will accept them, especially if some prospect of largesse is held out to them. And if that happens, his duchy too will be in your hands. In this way he will pay the penalty for his crimes as he deserves, while you have taken vengeance for the wrongs done to the Republic without cost, and so keep your reputation untarnished." [ii,65]The proveditors and their counsellors said this plan could be used only as a last resort and would have to see if there was another way for Ludovico to be 'brought to his senses by honorable means'. Word was sent back to the Heads of the Council in Venice, Bembo tells us, of Contarini's proposal, asking if they were agreeable, in the event that situations came to such a head. They wrote back saying such a course was 'not consonant with the dignity of the Republic'.
It was in relating this story that Bembo chose to tell the physical attributes of this captain.
"Contarini had a very tall, vigorous and strongly built physique. His brute strength was immense and almost unparalleled, his mind not only intelligent but capable of any great enterprise, so that you could be confident that he would deliver what he pronised. Though the proveditors grasped this, and competed with each other to praise him to the skies for not hesitating to take on such an important task for the common good, they decided to keep the plan as a last resort...." [ii, 66]When the siege was lifted and peace concluded, Novara itself reverted to control by the Duke of Milan. The proveditors turned to pay off the various armies and mercenaries and the Council could return their focus to other things. In these days, when the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul heard of what Bembo calls the success of Venice in forcing the King of France out of Italy, he sent them an 'extraordinarily fine horse' as congratulations. This the senators voted on and sent it to Bernardo Contarini as a gift. [iii, 17]
Contarini would continue to have many exploits against the French but still reach an untimely demise.
__________________________________________
from Pietro Bembo: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, The I Tatti Renaissance Library; The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment